The Swan Saltzman
by rocketstar
Summary: Odette Saltzman didn't come to Mystic Falls because she liked quaint little towns in the middle of Virginia, she only came to help her cousin Alaric to find out the truth about what happened to his wife Isobel and even then she didn't expect to stay long and be pulled into the mystery of a town riddled with several supernatural creatures, let alone meet someone like Klaus...
1. Chapter 1

Staring at the address written down on the rather crumpled piece of paper she had in front of her Odette Saltzman concluded that she was at the right destination. Sliding her sunglasses back down from the tip of her head she entered the rather old looking building and climbed the stairs until she reached the door marked number nine. Odette stood there for a moment in order to straighten her posture and practice her best and brightest smile before knocking on the door. From where she stood Odette could hear shuffling coming from the other side of the room before the door finally opened. And standing there was her cousin Alaric.

"Hello stranger." Odette began giving her cousin a bright smile before sliding past him in order to enter the apartment. Looking around she could see that it was a typical bachelor pad but a vast improvement on his last place. "Nice place you have here."

"What are you doing here? I thought you were going to be tied up in North Carolina for at least another week? And don't you have a meeting in New York as well?" Alaric asked and it was clear that he wasn't best pleased to see his younger cousin.

"All my business in North Carolina is taken care of Ric, it's amazing what one can accomplish in the space of a couple of days when one is in a rush and has the correct motivation. As for New York, that matter has been revolved by a little thing called email and courier service. Told Corinne that I had some personal business to take care of but it wouldn't interfere with my writing. She doesn't have a problem with it as long as I keep to my deadlines and fly out for the very important meetings but nice try Ric…" Odette quipped.

"I really wished you hadn't of come here, I don't want you putting your life on hold for me Ettie…" Alaric said and Ettie just sighed, her cousin was a right depressing dan at times for good reasons as he had been through a lot at times. But sometimes Odette wished he'd allow himself to be happy for a brief moment not to mention accept that he was getting her help.

"Will you please stop with all this nonsense already Ric? We've gone over it countless times already and I know we both got a huge headache out of this. I'm not letting you do this alone, you'll get yourself killed." Odette stated as she dropped her bag to the floor and plopped herself down by her cousins desk.

"Your father would kill me if he knew I was letting you get involved with something this dangerous." Alaric wearily said as he made his way over to the fridge and pulled out two beers before returning to where Odette was sitting and handing her one.

Odette smiled as she put her feet up on Alaric's desk and took a sip of her beer. "Good thing he's dead then."

"That's not funny Odette."

"Okay that was in poor taste but you get my point as would dad." Odette replied frowning at Alaric's use of her full name as he rarely called her by that. Just like her dad, Alaric would only call her Odette when she was walking on a very line. It almost made her nostalgic of her teenage years.

"No he wouldn't because this isn't anything normal Ettie, this is vampires that we're talking about! Actual blood sucking vampires who aren't good and harmless like all those books and films! They won't hesitate to kill you just like Isobel." Alaric snapped and Odette just peered into her beer bottle as the two of them feel into an awkward silence, which sort of became routine whenever Alaric got upset about Isobel. Odette never took it personally, she just knew that her cousin was angry and upset, most importantly he wanted answers as to what had happened to his wife.

Two years ago Alaric came home to find blood in his bedroom and no trace of Isobel, the police never found Isobel's body but she was assumed to bed. They all did. But it wasn't a normal disappearance or crime, three months later Odette learned the truth of that night from Alaric. He told her that he came home to find a vampire drinking Isobel's blood. Naturally Odette didn't believe it as back then she believed vampires to by myth but Alaric was adamant about it, shoving pages of pages of research in her face; Isobel's research.

"Isobel wasn't just your family Ric, she was mine too and I want to help. The two of you were there for me after dad died, you supported me with everything so I want to help you find out what happened to her. Almost two years we've been working on finding out the truth and we're almost there Ric, don't shut me out." Odette replied as her cousin in law was a paranormal psychologist and Isobel spent her days absorbed into folklore and myths like vampires which Odette and Alaric were more than happy to make fun of. Ric believed that Isobel was killed because she had found out too much and that's when he present Odette with the research about Mystic Falls. A small town in Virginia that had mysterious deaths occur every so often that were quickly blamed on animal attacks. Odette was a natural sceptic and she thought that Alaric had lost his mind due to what happened to Isobel but the whole thing kept nagging at her. Eventually she became a believer. So her the writer and Ric the history teacher continued Isobel's researcher which eventually led them back to Mystic Falls as the mysterious deaths had crept up again.

"I don't want you to get hurt." Ric quietly said.

"Never happen." Odette replied, sounding just abit too confident about that.

"Ettie…"

"I know what I'm doing Ric, I was taught by the best not to mention old buffy refuns and besides if I weren't here to keep an eye on your errant self Ric then whose going to stop you from getting killed? I'm in better physical shape than you given that you're kind of getting old..." Odette said trying to lighten the mood but that clearly wasn't working as Alaric still had a very disapproving and reluctant look on his face. "Ric I'm not a child anymore, I'm a grown adult of twenty six years old. I'm not stupid, I know that this isn't a game and that it is dangerous. You don't want me to be here and your being ridiculously stubborn about it despite knowing that I am more than capable of helping. But here's the thing we're the only family we have anymore so I'm not going anywhere. The two of us do this together or not at all, so if I'm leaving then you're coming with me…"


	2. Chapter 2

Odette sat at the bar of the local eatery called the Mystic Grill with a bottled beer sitting in her hand with her laptop in front of her, she was supposed to be meeting Alaric but he had gotten caught up at school marking some papers apparently. He had asked whether she wanted to help out in order to speed things up but Odette turned him down and told him she'd wait for him and get some writing done as she had left her school days behind her the day she had graduated from college. So whilst Alaric had been off playing the history teacher Odette had done the whole tourist thing, well as much as she could do in a town as small as Mystic Falls. The only real productive thing Odette had managed to do was find a potential place to live as whilst crashing on Alaric's couch was suiting her fine for now it wasn't a long term plan.

"_The dying swan, when years her temples pierce, In music-strains breathes out her life and verse, And, chanting her own dirge, tides on her wat'ry hearse._ Phineas Fletcher, I'm impressed…"

Odette resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the man who reading the quote by Phineas Fletcher she had tattooed on her back, people just couldn't help themselves when it came to reading it. And part of it was Odette's fault for getting a tattoo in the first place and having her back exposed so people could read it. But the man could have at least read it to himself! "Well I'm impressed that you know who Phineas Fletcher is, not many people do…"

"Well I'm not most people." The mystery man said as he sat down next to Odette and she was surprised to see that the guy who had been reading her back was handsome. More than that actually, he was very handsome with his dark hair and blue eyes dressed in all black, armed with the leather jacket that told Odette that he was one of those bad boy types. Good thing she kind of had a boyfriend then. "So what's with the tattoo?"

"Special meaning." Odette vaguely replied shutting her laptop before taking a sip of her drink.

"I assumed that since you got it tattooed on your body." The stranger said and the look he gave Odette told her that he wasn't leaving until his answer had been questioned. There must have been only a few years difference in age between the two of them not that Odette minded as most of the people she associated herself with older than her.

"If you really must know it relates to my name, well the swan part not the dying bit." Odette admitted, preparing herself to answer the age old question of why she was called Odette of all things instead of some normal name like Sara or Grace. Made her grateful that she had a beer in front of her as it wasn't the most pleasant of stories.

"Bella Swan?" The stranger questioned and Odette couldn't help but laugh, that was a new one and hopefully that was the first and last time that anyone would think that her name was the same as the girl from the twilight book saga. It was weird that Odette found herself enjoying her companions company as she wasn't usually one for striking up conversations in bars with strange men who she had just met but here she was.

"Funny and kind of close, my name is Odette."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. I was named after the white swan in the play swan lake, it was a favourite of my mother's…" Odette admitted, not giving the full story about how her mother wanted to name her that but her father disagreed until her mother died during childbirth. As a tribute to his wife and to honour her Frederick Saltzman named his newborn daughter Odette."

"Beautiful name… So Odette, I haven't see you around before." The stranger said motioning for the bartender to get him a drink.

"That's because I've just arrived here, yesterday in fact and i was a bit preoccupied with a few things which didn't give me time to get the lay of land but i did that today and somehow landed up at bar with a drink in my hand. Only part of my life that seems a bit of a regular reoccurrence." Odette dismally noted as the bartender returned with a glass of what Odette took to be scotch.

"Finally someone who thinks the same way i do, I'm Damon." The man began finally revealing his name. "Damon Salvatore."

"Pleasure."

"So what brings you to Mystic Falls of all places then Odette?" Damon questioned.

"Why are you so interested?"

"Well I'm part of the town's welcoming committee so it's part of my job to ask." Damon replied and Odette didn't believe him in the slightest and the look he wore on his face told her that he didn't believe that either. Odette found herself becoming rather interested by Damon so she decided to humour him although she wouldn't tell him the real truth as to why she was here.

"I decided to take a little break from my life and a small town in Virginia sounded pretty good to me, figured I could get away from the stress of the city for a while. Might do me and my work some good…" Odette lied although part of it was true, well the whole her getting away might do her work some good as she was kind of stuck in a bit of a rut when it came to her writing. Two hours of writing she did today and she had emerged with nothing substantial.

"You decided to take a break from life and you wound up here in Mystic Falls? Then I suggest you keep drinking." Damon advised.

"I'll bare that in mind."

"So you mentioned work? What exactly is it you do?" Damon asked.

"I'm a writer."

"Really? Have I read anything you've written?"

"The twilight series, well I'm guessing you've read it as you know who Bella Swan is. I chose her surname based on my first name because as you've seen I really like swans." Odette quipped and Damon chuckled. "Okay, in all seriousness I wrote Harry Potter and I pay some lady to go around and pretend to be me so I can live in anonymity…"

"Very funny." Damon retorted.

"Thanks, I try and to answer your question I don't think you've read anything I've written and even if you did, you wouldn't know as my books have been published under a different name. I don't put my name on my work, I use a pen name instead." Odette said.

"Why not?"

"You ask a lot of questions, has anyone ever told you that?" Odette asked.

"And you try to evade a lot of questions." Damon retorted.

"Personal reasons, ones I'm not willing to discuss with strange men who I've just met in a bar." Odette replied taking a swing of her drink. "And before you ask I'm not telling you my pen name."

"I'll get it out of you eventually."

Odette scoffed. "I'd like to see you try."

"Well it's a good thing for me that you've decided to take a little break from your life in my small little town…"


	3. Chapter 3

Odette stood in the doorway of her cousin's classroom and watched as Alaric went about teaching his class, he seemed really passionate about what he was doing and Odette was glad that something was providing him with some kind of stability. As much as Odette was happy and willing to help Alaric with his quest to find out the truth about what happened to Isobel, he needed something that would take up his time and not make him obsess about the vampire thing constantly. And him teaching seemed to do that which she saw as a good thing as Odette was worried that Alaric was going to have a mental breakdown or rather a major depressive episode as it was called these days. Teaching seemed to give him something to focus on during the day and it seemed to be doing the trick and the fact that it seemed to make Alaric happy was an added bonus. Odette waited until the bell had gone and the students had left to walk into the classroom.

"Hey stranger, what brings you here?" Alaric asked in a warm tone of voice.

"Brought you a coffee, thought you might need to get you through the day of teaching the next generation but apparently not as you looked all bright eyes and bushy tailed up there." Odette said as she handed Alaric one of the two cups of coffee that she had brought here before sitting down in one of the desks.

"I like teaching."

"I know you do and it suits you very well, I wish I had a teacher like you when I was in school." Odette replied with a bright smile.

"You did Ettie, you just never paid attention to any them because you were too busy daydreaming in class as you thought you knew everything already. And before you say it I know that your one of those naturally smart people who got through school without really trying, so you don't have to convince me." Alaric retorted.

"Yes I know I was very arrogant about my intelligence in my youth but going down memory lane about my high school and college years as fun as that may be isn't why I'm here. Nor am I here to discuss your fine teaching abilities and how you're influencing the next generation to not repeat the mistake of those before them." Odette began with a small chuckle before reaching into her bag and grabbing a file from inside and handing it over to Alaric.

"What is this?"

"This town is very weird–." Odette started.

"–Ettie this town has a history of vampire attacks so of course it's a weird town." Alaric replied and Odette rolled her eyes.

"Look I know it's Buffy and Angel kind of weird but that wasn't what I was referring to, this town is more than that. It's certainly got the supernatural freaky weirdness to it but this town also has a frigging Stepford and Groundhog day vibe to it as well. Kind of reminds me of a Stephen King novel if I think about it…" Odette said.

"So the men in town have made robotic wives and the days just keep repeating themselves?" Alaric asked in a sarcastic manner as he took a sip of his coffee and Odette just rolled her eyes.

"Ha ha! Very funny wise ass but that's not what I mean, have you heard of the founding families of Mystic Falls?" Odette questioned moving things along so she could finally make her point seeing as it was the reason for her visit,

"I've heard of them, back in 1860 five families founded Mystic Falls and as such they are known as the founding families and these families still continue to live in Mystic Falls. Members of the founding families sit on the Founders Council which is in charge of celebrating the foundation of the town." Alaric informed Odette who nodded.

"Yes that's them, anyway I was doing some research and I noticed something, I'm not sure whether it's something of worth or not but I thought I should bring it to your attention. If you'll open that file and you'll see that it's a bunch of records, more specifically it's a list of names of those whose who have held the highest positions of power in Mystic Falls." Odette said and she watched as Alaric opened the file and read it and as he did a frown appeared on his face. "You've noticed it haven't you? That the names on that list are surprisingly similar." Odette said.

"The Lockwood's and Forbes." Alaric slowly said before looking up from the file to look at Ettie. "You did all of this research?"

"Writer's block is a real bitch when you have a three chapter deadline in two weeks but all the free time I have has gone to very good use." Odette quipped only to be interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing, Odette looked at who was calling her before frowning.

"Someone important?" Alaric asked.

"Just the boyfriend." Odette said blocking the call before tugging on the end of her blonde ponytail.

"Problems in paradise?"

"I've got other things to worry about now than that… You look at that list and you see that those two founding families have practically held the office of Mayor and Sheriff, since the towns founding and right now the Mayor and Sheriff of this town are Richard Lockwood and Elizabeth Forbes. Now Sheriff Forbes is only a member of the Forbes family through her former marriage although she kept her ex husbands name after the divorce. But that wasn't my point, this is my point; do you want to guess who was in office during the animal attacks of 1864?" Odette replied.

"A Lockwood and a Forbes." Alaric noted.

"Correct, Benjamin Lockwood and William Forbes." Odette added.

"Ettie are you suggesting that the founding families know about the vampires? Or just the Lockwood's and Forbes and they've been covering it up for the last hundred and forty five years." Alaric questioned and she knew it sounded very far-fetched and kind of in the conspiracy nut basket but Odette couldn't deny the information that was in front of her. It all added up but it didn't make sense in a manner of speaking given that they were talking about vampires and potential cover ups.

"I don't know what exactly I'm saying but all I know is things in this town aren't what they seem at first glance, this town may not be Kansas but it certainly isn't some quaint little town either."


End file.
